Monday, September 22, 2008

Long time no blog

Sorry folks, but I just haven’t felt much like making any blog entries lately. The adventure has become somewhat of a bummer. First, I left Old Corundum Campground on September 12th and returned to my aunt Martha’s in Molena, GA. Not that aunt Martha’s is a bummer, there’s a hook-up here and plenty of room to set up my equipment, it’s just that the people at Old Corundum were fun to be around, I made some good friends and the girls on “Estrogen Hill” had adopted me as one of their own. (see definition of Estrogen Hill at end of this blog entry). It was just hard to leave, but with all the medical bills from the accident, (more reason to be bummed) I could no longer afford to pay for camping when I could stay at aunt Martha’s for the cost of electricity. I am welcomed here with open arms and Martha and my multitude of cousins and cousin-in-laws make for an enjoyable stay. The main reason for my bummerness is Cutter. He is getting less and less able to get up on his hind leg; he is in some pain and just scoots his butt across the ground. The part that really tears me up is that other than the physical stuff he is alert and full of joy. I took him to the Vet and he explained that his age and the heart worms are taking their toll and there is not much I can do about it. Cutter is also becoming more dependent on me and doesn’t want to let me out of his sight. I find myself getting angry at him; I want to yell at him to cut the crap and just get up and walk like a normal three legged dog, but instead I pet him and sit with him and talk stupid dog stuff to him. Several times I have had to pick him up and put him into the trailer because he could not navigate the ramp. It feels a lot like when my mom passed away, in that for a long time she was incapacitated and was in pain. By the time she did pass, it was almost a relief that the suffering had ended. It was several years before I was able to grieve her loss. Not that Cutter is as important to me as my mom, but he does mean allot. It’s just that I can foresee, in the not too distant future, that I am going to have to put him down and I am not looking forward to that. He is getting worse much faster than I had expected. This is also placing my own mortality smack in my face. Let’s just say I have been in better spaces.

On the bright side I am getting better and better doing my stone cutting and wire wrapping. I have created several new designs and modifications, which pleases me. Here are a few of the latest.


From Year one September 2008


I really love this piece. It is a piece of rare Tampa Bay Coral.. It's rare because it is currently illegal to harvest this stone from the bay because people were destroying the bay collecting it.

From Year one September 2008

Click on the above pic and you can see more close up's of the other pendants

I have recently negotiated with a couple of ladies in Lauderdale, who are assembling a website featuring several jewelry artists, to include my stuff. As soon as the site is operational I will inform you. They have already taken pictures of some of my stuff and now all I have to do is to write a brief “bio” with a photo and my part is done. I am struggling with the bio, sometimes I have difficulty tooting my own horn.

Soon I will have enough stuff to begin selling at craft and art venues. I will start with local, small town affairs and work my way up to larger art shows. I anticipate things to be rough, with the economy the way it is and jewelry not being an item of necessity, but if I can make this work enough to sustain myself it will be better than crawling around on the ground repairing lifts. I sold a fair amount of my pieces to the campers at Old Corundum, which was nice and it boosted my ego regarding the quality and marketability of my work.

I’m not going to promise, but I will try to make my entries a little more often than in recent weeks and I will keep you apprised of Cutter’s progress. That part will suck but I know you will want to know.

I ended up selling the trailer I bought, mainly to help pay the doctor bills. I really hated doing that but it was the best choice under the circumstances.

Good, bad or indifferent the adventure continues because none of us get out of here alive, not even dogs.

AV.

Estrogen Hill: Old Corundum Campground is basically divided into two areas. There is the main campground which contains at least fifty or more camp sites and then there is an area I call “Estrogen Hill” which is outside the main park and across Nickajack road. There are about nine or ten spaces up on the hill. While I was camped there the occupants of the hill were four single women and myself, (I was in heaven) thus the name Estrogen Hill.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Life and plans

Sooner or later it happens to us all. We get old. That goes for dogs too. Cutter is definitely slowing down. When we first got to this campground about three month ago, when we went for walks we went for at least a mile sometimes two. Now we are lucky to make it a quarter of a mile. On really good days in the cool morning air we might make a half mile. I have learned to read Cutters body language and I can tell when he wants’ to head back, sometimes it is easy, he just lays down and watches me ride off in the distance other times he looks back to the campground, looks where we are headed, looks at me and looks back at the campground, subtle, huh. I am assuming that he is getting tired, it’s either that or he has decided that there aren’t enough smells in that direction to warrant the effort to head down that road. The Vet said that this heart worm thing would sap his energy and eventually take his life. The other day he could not get up on his rear leg and I had to lift his rear quarters so that he could walk. However sometimes I think he can’t get up because he doesn’t want to do what I want him to do. Increasingly, when I need to go off somewhere and I want him to go into the trailer he acts like he can’t get up the ramp. He makes this half assed effort and looks up at me with a “see I tried look” where I then grab his rear end and shove him up the ramp. You should see the look he gives me then. He looks fine, he eats well or it seems he does. He doesn’t look ill or anything but I think he will be lucky to make it till this time next year. Whatever is in store for he and I, it will have been the best the best dog relationship I have ever had. I don’t plan on getting another dog when he passes. So we enjoy what we have now and when the time comes, the time comes.



Tomorrow is my last wire wrap class. It has been fun and I think I have learned as much, if not more than my students.

I plan to leave the trailer here and run up to Columbus, OH and visit my friends Clyde and Claudia for a couple of days. Cutter and I will take a tent and a few necessities and camp in their back yard. I forgot that this weekend is a holiday weekend. I hope the gas prices keep everyone home so that I have no traffic to deal with. We can all dream.

After that I will return to Old Corundum and start organizing and packing the trailer and truck.

I got Sic Fiddy back and he runs just fine. He needs some minor repairs but other than that he’s good to go.



I signed up for a class on the 11th of September that teaches a new bezel forming technique. (a bezel is the thing that goes around a stone or other item that makes it so that it can be hung from a chain or mounted on a ring.) I have extended my stay just to take this class. It is unusual in that you solder the bezel while the stone is mounted in it. No other process does that. All other systems the bezel is made first and after everything is soldered and assembled the stone is inserted and the bezel is closed by pressing the metal around the stone.

The day following the class I plan to pull out of Old Corundum and head back down to Molina, GA and stay with my Aunt Martha and my cousins for awhile.

I am telling you all this because I may not have time to post another entry until I get to Molina. I have a lot of stuff to sort and pack. Some of the stuff I acquired with the rocks, I will store in the shed at my new trailer. The rest I will load into Cazee and Lyca.

Yesterday we had our monthly Pot-Luck dinner. It was fantastic as unusual. Everyone seemed to have a great time, even me.



AV

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Healing well

Hi Everyone
I went to the Doctor on July 21 and he said I was healing remarkably well and I should be able to put some weight on the foot in 6 weeks or so. Well Doc, sorry to tell you, but I have already been hobbling around on it for three or four days now. Some how, during my stay in the hospitable, I got the impression that I was to stay off of it for two weeks, which by my calculations was five days before my appointment on the 21st. I asked him what damage I could do by putting weight on it and he said that it was just a precaution because I damaged some ligaments and they needed time to heal.

Now, everyone who knows me, knows that I always do what I’m told, right? RIGHT. So, since the leg has been feeling good, I’m thinking, I have been exercising the leg and ligaments by putting a little weight on them, it is probably much stronger than it would have been if I hadn’t and as a bonus it has healed faster. Therefore, I have continued to put more and more weight on it as I feel it can comfortably accept. Yesterday I bought a new pair of shoes and am hardly limping as I walk around the campground. This morning Cutter went for a walk and I rode “Mike the Bike”, instead of the little personal scooter that I have been using to walk Cutter. All in all the leg is feeling great. If I am on it too long I can feel the discomfort and I elevate it for 10 or 20 minutes or so and I’m good to go. It itches like crazy at times; fortunately I can pop off the ace bandage and scratch till my heart’s content. People around here can’t believe how fast my injury is recovering. I doubt if I will return to the doctor. He told me that some people have the screws removed after 4 to 6 months but more often than not they just leave them in and eventually they break off. I never thought to ask where they go after they break or if there will be any sharp edges to deal with. I guess I will cross that bridge later.

As I mentioned before, I was unable to be a vendor in the Gem and Rock show because of my leg (bummer), however I did go to the show and picked up a few tips on wire wrapping and a couple of items that I needed, I have been getting better and better on the wire wrapping.

This is a piece of Pietersite from Africa, it is a beautiful stone and the wire wrap is simple and elegant.


I have even done some very small opals.




Lots of people in the campground are bringing me stones to wrap and I am earning a few bucks that way. It’s been fun.

I have also been teaching about 12 of the ladies in the campground how to do wire wrapping. We have had 5 classes so far and this Monday we will be doing crosses.

These are two of thw crosses I make the both sell for the same price of $20.00 because the smaller on is so much harder to make.


I sold the bulk of my rocks to a rock vendor at the show. I lost a little on the transaction, but I kept some of the good stuff for myself to cut and polish, so I am happy with the deal. I sure didn’t want to lug around 4,000 lbs of rock.

Despite my injury I’m still having a great time. I plan on staying in Franklin until the end of August to complete my healing. From here I may go to Columbus, OH to see Clyde and Claudia or I might just return to my Aunt Martha’s in Molina GA. Not sure at this time.

Love you all

AV

Ps. I am getting your messages on the “Shout Box” but I can’t reply to them because I either don’t know how or it won’t let me. The best way to get me a message is through my e-mail dubyacay@gmail.com or khatch46@yahoo.com

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Adventure unwanted

Sorry for the delay.


Well it has been quite awhile since I have made a blog entry and I have a pretty good reason for the delay. On July first at ten thirty am I took a mountain curve a little too fast and Sic Fiddy and I ended up in a ditch. Sic Fiddy came out with a broken fender and a broken headlight bracket, I came out with a broken Fibula and a hyper extended shoulder. I was in the hospital for 4 nights and was released around 3 pm on Saturday. The fibula is the small leg bone that goes just below the knee down to the ankle on the outward side of the leg. Here is a picture of the leg skeleton and a picture of my repaired fibula. The x-ray is taken with my toes pointing at the camera.





At the first opportunity I contacted the Old Corundum campground and asked Ginger, another new friend, to look after Cutter while I was in the hospital. Unfortunately Cutter would not allow anyone to enter the trailer and he would not come out. So they left food and water just inside the door and left the door open so that he could come out to relive himself when he felt safe enough. He was scaired and wanted me to be there

Some new friends came all the way to Ashville from Franklin to pick me up on Saturday and had to wait two and one half hours for the people to check me out. But I finally got out of there and we made it home around three. Cutter was as glad to see me as I was to see him.

I am doing pretty well now I can get around with almost no pain and it looks like I am healing nicely. Everyone around the campground has been great. Ginger even washed and folded my dirty laundry last week. If anyone goes into town they are sure to stop by and ask if I need anything. All in all, the unwanted adventure has not been as bad as it could have been. I will not be able to be a vendor at the rock show because I am not capable of lifting the heavy containers. The people have refunded my deposit for the vendor space. I am not sure what I will do with the rocks now. I may store them at the new trailer and try again another year, but what I would like to do is sell the big rough stuff to a wholesale vendor and just keep the small stuff and some of the slabs.

Other than me healing and doing a lot of reading there isn’t much going on. The weather has been nice. There was a Victory battery powered personal scooter in the campground storage shed that someone left and Don (everyone calls him “Corn Bread”) drug it out and fixed it so that I could use it. It is great for walking Cutter and running down into the camp ground.
I have to go back to Asheville on the 21st to see the doctor and see what he has to say about my leg. I am feeling positive and it won’t be long before I am running around as I was before the accident.

AV

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Blessings

Forces beyond my comprehention.

I have debated with myself over the years, whether to reveal to the general populace my stories of coincidence, in that the odds of them actually happening are inconceivable. In the past I have chosen only my closest friends that know me well to tell these stories to because I have felt that most people who don’t know me would think I was an alien abductee. Whether you call it coincidence, universal karma, the force, the secret, a higher power or God, the result is the same, insanely impossible things transpire. I choose to call these blessing, God acting on my desires, hopes, wishes or needs.

These blessings have happen quite frequently over the years, some large some so small as to go unnoticed if I weren’t aware of the phenomena, and I only became aware of it and how often it was occurring around the age of thirty five. I do not plan to list and recount the multitude of these blessings here but the events of the last couple of weeks has lifted this issue to the forefront. Now, I want to be clear here, I’m not talking life changing events or miracles (even though the odds would be indicative of one). I’m talking everyday wants, desires and needs. So I will relate to you the last couple of blessings that God has bestowed upon me.

As you are aware I finally consummated the deal for the rocks with Mack and as we were standing there surveying the piles, I asked Mack if he knew of a rental storage place nearby that when I got the rocks were sorted and in containers that I could store them until the show. I also asked him if he knew of anyone who would slab up the rocks for a fee or if he knew anyone who might have a diamond slab saw for sale. He indicated that he knew nothing of slab saws nor where I might find one, but there is a small storage facility right down the road here. So I hopped on Sic Fiddy and motored down to the storage facility. There was no one in the rental office and the place looked deserted however the gate was open so I decided to cruise through the facility. As I rounded the end of a row of buildings there was a couple moving items from one storage unit into a larger storage unit and there, sitting in the smaller unit was I thought was a 12 inch diamond blade, auto feed, slab saw. Now in all my life, I have never actually seen a slab saw except in pictures in lapidary catalogues and the least expensive with manual feed were priced at around $2,000.00.

I asked the guy if that was a slab saw and he said “Yep, you wanna buy it?”

I told him that I would give him $300.00, and that’s how I came in possession of my twelve inch slab saw.

Thirty minutes before I had not thought about a slab saw and now my needs were met. They were the only people in the complex. There were there only for this one day and they were traveling out of state. They had arrived at the storage complex about twenty minutes before me and were going to be there for about four hours.



Cutter and I take walks at least twice a day and we have several different routes. On one of these routs is what appears to be an abandoned ramshackle trailer on a beautiful piece of property (I think about two acres) that borders the Cullasaga River for about 200 feet. I asked Mack about it and he knows the owners but was unwilling to give out much information. I really don’t have the finances to purchase a piece of property right now, but I was thinking “some day, down the road”, I might like to retire here and that property would be perfect. So I have been dwelling on it and casually asking around as to the location of the owners but not putting a lot of effort into it.

At this point I need to give you an overview of the Old Corundum RV Park. There are two sections, one is the main park where most of the residents live (around 50 trailers) and there is the section where I am up on the hill where there are 8 trailers. Lately, I have been working on getting ready for the show and have spent very little time in the main park. If I went down there twice a day that would be allot. It was around 5pm and I had not been down in the main park all day. I had just completed wire wrapping a stone for a friend of mine and was taking it down to him. On the way down I saw a Blondie talking another woman. Blondie had expressed an interest my wire wrapping so I stopped to show her the stone that I had done for John. She commented on how pretty it was and out of the blue asks if I wanted to buy a trailer. Apparently the lady with whom she was speaking was moving to Colorado and wanted to sell her trailer.

I told her that a guy up on the hill had offered to sell me his for $11,000.00 and she said “I’ll sell you mine for 3,500 dollars”.

I am the proud owner of a 2003 Forest River Sierra model 32’ with two power slide outs and all the amenities. I looked this trailer up on NADA and the used price ranged from $12,000 for low retail and $17,000 high retail. This trailer was sold new, pulled from the sales lot nearby, parked in the campground, where they built a big aluminum canopy over it to protect it from the sun and weather. It was as if God said, that trailer down the road is currently not available how about this one.

Of all the people in the camp ground, the unknown stranger with the three legged dog up on the hill who never comes down to the main park is offered this phenomenal bargain. Mack, the park owner, who usually gets these deals, passed by the two ladies twice while they were talking and never said a word to either one.

Blondie’s husband told me later, “If my wife had told me about it I would have bought the trailer”.

Marie, the lady who sold me the trailer, had only minutes before, arrived from Pennsylvania and had wandered into the campground to stretch her legs when she ran into Blondie.

So, to my son and daughter, friends and relatives if you can arrange a small vacation and you want to stay rent free at my summer home, (I won’t be in it) it will be available from around August 15th through October 31st, call me to confirm. Sleeps six, Queen Master bed.







love ya Dad, Ken, Bro, gOOch.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Approaching three months

I know it is a cliché but, it seems like forever since I left my home in Lake Worth and began this adventure. There is a lot to be said for living with no agenda, no definite place I have to be and no specific time to be there. Not long term anyway. I still have to wash my clothes, cook my meals and get up every morning to a happy dog that wags his tail so hard it sounds like a demolition crew racing through the trailer. He keeps me moving, we walk a mile or two every morning and evening. I am half ashamed to tell you, I was really unsure whether I wanted to bring Cutter along on this adventure. Initially I had planned to go it alone but I could find no graceful way of dumping my friend and disappearing in to the sunset. Thank God for that. He has been my rock, my island of daily reality. Most people remember my name, but when someone is refreshing a friend’s memory they refer to me as “The guy with the three legged dog.” Additionally Cutter has become one of Franklin’s business leaders; here he is in front of his latest entrepreneurial endeavor.



North Georgia and Western North Carolina are beautiful this time of year. My friend Clyde call’s it God’s country. I am inclined to agree. Right now the temperatures are perfect. Low to mid sixty’s at night and mid to high seventies during most of the day, (when it is over 80, I nap). Things are very green. The kudzu has begun its futile campaign to cover the world, only to be eventually defeated by winters freeze.





Blackberries are starting to appear as bunches of little red nubs on the ends of the bush branches. Another month and they will be ripe and ready for the fool hardy picker who would challenge their thorns.

Almost everyone has their vegetable garden whether it is a small patch in the side yard or a acre out back of the barn.



Three months on the road and the lion’s share has been in the N. GA and W. NC area. Hence, through my astute powers of observation, I believe that I have become somewhat of an expert on the psyche of the rural mountain dweller. First and foremost they seem very friendly; they wave at you even if they have no earthly idea who you are. You could be Charles Manson and they would be waving and smiling as if you were their cousin that had been over for dinner the previously evening. On the road is where I notice the most difference between ruralites and city dwellers. One major difference is that they don’t seem to have any particular place to go and they have no particular time to be there. When following one who is planning to make a right turn, their turn signal goes on three miles before the planned turn and a gradual deceleration begins until they reach their turning point where they almost come to a stop as the make their turn. Another asphalt related occurrence is that even if they have the right of way and you are waiting for them to pass you from the opposite direction so that you can make your left hand turn, they stop and wave you in front of them. This habit is very disconcerting, in that, not everyone out here adheres to this policy, thus contributing to a substantial amount of indecision, which by the way, is another apparent rural trait. Even though they seem friendly enough I have noticed that they appear have a secret plot to take over the world. You see, they are multiplying. In the local Wal-Mart it is rare that you don’t see a female of breeding age that is not pulling one, pushing one and cooking one. Hell I hope they succeed, they can’t do worse and a little friendly wave now and then couldn’t hurt. However a lot of them do have guns.

AV

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Treasure!!! Treasure... Treasure???

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Leaving Sundowner RV Village and arrived back at Old Corundum Campground to try to make a deal with Mack (the campground owner) for his rocks. I had called him in advance to let him know so he could be prepared. As you may know I tried to cut a deal with him before I left for school but he would not commit. I had decided that I would give him 5 days to make a decision. If we could not make an agreement before Wednesday then I would head to Columbus, OH where my friends Clyde and Claudia live and I thought I would hang with them for awhile. So I arrive Saturday Morning, Mack is out of town and won’t be back until that evening. I set up Cazee and prepare to stay for a couple of days.


Monday, June 9, 2008

Monday noon and still no sign of Mack. I heard he was back but I haven’t seen him but he knows I’m here and where I am, so I go looking for him. I finally found him jawing with another camper that was getting his air conditioner fixed. I semi-confronted him and told him that to show me where the rocks were and I would pull them out myself, that he would not have to do a thing. He tried to put me off till the morning when it was cooler but I insisted that it was now or never and he relented. I spent the next five hours clearing out his shed and dragging boxes and bins of rocks along with cabinets golf clubs fishing poles and God knows what else out of his shed. The cool thing was, I had fun doing it, plus it was great exercise. As I was finishing up Mack wandered by and I asked him how much he wanted for the whole lot of rocks. He refused to give me a figure so finally I made him an offer, and he said “I’ll think about it”, and walks away.

Let me take a minute here to let you know that Mack is a friendly, kind, caring and fairly generous Christian man. I like Mack a lot, as do most people who meet him. There is however, this side of him, the indecisive, inconsiderate side, which makes dealing with him on matters of personal and fairly unique decisions, very frustrating and personally offensive.

So here I am, Tuesday, all day no sign of Mack, Wednesday noon, my deadline day, no Mack. By this time I am so disgusted that I am thinking that I don’t even want the rocks anymore. Maybe I will just buy a few from him and he can do whatever he wants with the rest. So I went to his house and when he comes out he claims he has been looking for me since yesterday. Now I don’t wander too far from my camper and if he was looking for me he was looking at someone else’s camp spot. He agreed to my offer and I accepted. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Now since the decision has been made Mack is as helpful and generous as can be. He told me to load the front end of the tractor up with the boxes and bins of rocks and he would bring them down to my camp spot so that I could identify and sort them.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

One week, one day and six tractor buckets later I am busting my butt sorting cutting and identifying (as best I can) approximately 4000 pounds of rock. Now I hear you. What in the hell does he need with 4000 pounds of rock, and how will he haul that around with him throughout the USA?

Well here’s my plan. On July 23 there is another (bigger) gem, rock & mineral show here in Franklin. I have purchased a spot to sell my stuff at one of the venues. In addition I will have Jo send me her jewelry, plus I will make as much wire jewelry as I can and cut up some of the rock into slabs. (They are easier to sell that way.) Whatever rocks I don’t sell, I will try to make a deal with a wholesaler for the remaining lot minus some premium stuff for me. Things rarely go as planned, but hey, this is an adventure right?

Here is my treasure.



On the left is a bucket of slabs that I have already cut up.



This stuff is sorted



This is stuff left to be cut and sorted



The red bin on the right is 60 pounds of Rose Quartz



These are several sorted boxes of nice rock



This is what a rock looks like before I slab it. This is a 8 pound piece of picture Jasper. it is about 6 inches in diameter



This is the 12 inch self feed diamond saw that I cut it up in.



This is what it looks like aftre I slab it. These are 1/4 inch thick slabs sliced iff of the rock.



And the adventure continues.

AV